Shadows And Inheritances
by shockin'blueeyes
Summary: If her father hasn't disinherited her yet, he sure would do after this Christmas. R


Written for the Hogwarts Online forum. Go check it out, it's awesome!

It's a Christmas fic i wrote, hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

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In our life, there is usually one or two decisions that define us, make us what we are. They change our lives, and if they turn to the better or the worst, well, that's completely your responsibility. Sure, sometimes, those changes don't permit thinking over and have to be decided over the course of one second, but generally, these things can and should be thought over and over, even reaching to the point of thinking of all the ways the decision could go.

And that was what Rose Weasley, daughter of not just one war hero, but two war heroes, and two out of the three that helped most in defeating Voldemort, the most Dark Wizard of all times, was doing at the time. She paced silently the deserted corridors of Hogwarts, grazing lightly with her outstretched hand the wall, feeling the roughness of it. It helped her think. Of course, in the library she could think too, but there were too many books, too many temptations, and today the last thing she needed was to get distracted. She was screwing up all her courage so she could carry through what she had spent half the Christmas holidays thinking over, pondering. Pondering the consequences of the life-changing decision that would most probably set her out of her parents and family's shadow.

But she liked to think it was just a New Year's resolution.

It wasn't that Rose didn't love her family, she did, she truly did. They had always been there for her, and she couldn't imagine her life without them, but, well, over the last months, things had changed slightly, and it had made her wonder, not for the first time, if sticking with her family was worth it, after all. Would they still give her their support, if she did what she had in mind? Would they still accept her the same way? And what if the problem was, not that she was worried about their approval, but that she was worried that she really didn't care if she got it?

Being the child of a war hero is not easy, much less two, and from where her memory reached, she had always been seen as Hermione's and Ron's daughter, the clever. She had many other attributes, but it didn't seem to count. She was just that, Rose the Clever. Or Rose Weasley, the daughter of… the niece of… the granddaughter of… the bloody second cousin thrice removed of…

She had heard stories about her dad's insecurity, of his feeling of inferiority at being overshadowed by his brothers, but with all respect, she felt she had much more people to feel overshadowed of. But that wasn't even the problem! She wasn't overshadowed, she was Rose the Clever!

She was underestimated. Chocked by her family's fame, by her inheritance, by all the awesome things their parents did and she would never get to outdo.

And she had finally had enough. One morning she had woken up and said enough is enough, proceeding then to write to her parents and tell them she wouldn't be coming home for Christmas, like she always did. She would have liked to see his father's face when he read the letter. But, for Merlin's sake, she was staying because she needed to study, she needed to do well in her O.W.L.S., not because she was desperately crawling away from her family's shadow, don't think that, that is insane, that's not _clever_, and she was Rose the Clever, thank you very much.

So she had stayed behind, while the castle emptied and the snow covered the grounds, enveloping the world in a white cocoon of peace.

Rose had always loved Christmas, time so filled with traditions, but also time for change, for New Year's resolutions.

Traditions like the Weasley-Potter dinner at the Burrow on Christmas, a must, when even Uncle Charlie came back from his beloved dragons and stayed a few days. Traditions like the epic snowball fight, held every year in New Year's Eve, in the dead of the night, just after the clock struck midnight. It was magical: the garden of the Burrow lit with fairy lights, and two teams, throwing snowballs with everything they got; magic or not, it didn't matter. They had such a good time, even Grandpa and Grandma played sometimes.

She was kinda jealous that this year she hadn't been able to do it, but it had come a time in her life when she needed to ponder carefully her way of action, and she knew that if she had gone home, she wouldn't have time to do it. Here, however, almost alone in the castle and with the snow surrounding all, it wasn't difficult to find a peace that, let's face it, she didn't have often, all with her relatives running around and such.

During the christmas holidays, with the holidays sprit, and the decorations that swarmed Hogwarts, it was very easy to fall into a Christmas-induced hapiness, and that most definitely helps when you have to face an important decison, don't you think?

She had finally come up with a solution. Now the holidays were over, even if the Christmas decorations were still up and the merriness hadn't faded completely away. She needed to do it before she lost the courage Christmas inspired her, before she fell again in the routine.

She walked the empty corridors, her arm still outstretched, but this time she made a conscious turn to the left. It was time, she had her decision laid out in her head, and her way of action, though simple and still incredibly tricky, all thought out. She got a new spring in her step as she approached the Great Hall in her way to dinner.

She had always admired the castle, that even with the attacks of the Second Wizarding War, still conserved all its greatness, still held up, almost like defying anyone who tried to bring it down, and when she got to the huge oak doors, she couldn't help but pause slightly, gazing up at the ceiling in wonder, like she had done in her first year, when she first entered the Great Hall. The small icicles still hung from the ceiling, as if reminding her that the merry spirit of Christmas was still there, that she still had time.

She lowered her gaze and racked the four tables with her eyes, observing. Everything seemed different. Everything was different. At least for her. She was finally gonna step out of her family's shade, she was gonna do something really brave, really freeing, and some would say, really stupid. But even if they had decided to keep it a secret, that hardly mattered now. She was young, she was finally free, and she was in love. So screw her family, screw traditions, screw stupid prejudices, for she was gonna do what she wanted to do.

As she advanced through the tables, she smiled a little at the thought that if her father hadn't disinherited yet, he surely would do after what she was about to do. Oh, what a late Christmas present. And to her big surprise, she found out she didn't care. Finally she reached the Gryffindor table, and tapped her cousin's best friend on the shoulder. In the two seconds that got him to turn around, a million thoughts run through her mind, but none seemed coherent enough to mention.

'What do you want, Rose?' he asked, turning around, and she said calmly, though inside she was a wreck of nerves.

'Stand up Scorpius' he looked confused for a second, brow slightly furrowed. A few curious eyes had begun to look their way, but she didn't care. What were a few curious eyes compared to her freedom? 'Scorpius, I'm gonna kiss you in three seconds, so you better stand up, because I want everyone to see' somewhere down the table there was a gasp, and she heard her cousin James giving an outraged cry, but she ignored them. Merlin, it was liberating.

Scorpius raised an eyebrow, but stood up nonetheless, and in one swift move had her pressed against him, their lips inches apart.

'I thought you wanted to keep it a secret' he whispered.

'Not anymore. I'm free' she said, beaming. He shook his head with an amused smile, and she swatted his arm. 'You better kiss me now, fool, before James jumps across the table and murders you' he chuckled in a low voice that send shivers down her spine, and he glanced back a second to look at the table, as it daring someone to try and stop him. And then he kissed her.

There were a few seconds of stunned silence, and then the Great Hall erupted with noise. From everywhere came clapping, wolf-whistling and whooping, but she could still hear above the noise her relatives, always louder than everyone else.

Outraged cries of 'No, Rose!' and 'Get away from her, bloody murder!' coming surely from James, Fred and Louis, excited cries from Lily, Molly, Lucy and Roxanne, and several chortling sentences of Hugo and Al, along the lines of 'You should have told me, mate!', 'I knew it!', and her personal favourite: 'Dad's going to disinherit you when he finds out!'

Ah, finally, no shadow. Only sun, bright as his hair, and for Merlin's pants, she hoped she would see it everyday day of her life.

And people wondered why she liked Christmas…

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Review! please!


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